T.V.M.

Background

Advertisement

Powers and Abilities

T.V.M. is free from the constraints of reality, just like in his drugs-induced deliria. This “reality-fluxing” ability chiefly means that :

• He’s free from gravity (though he hovers more than he flies).
• He can ignore barriers (as he’s normally in a dispersed state).
• He is free from conventional definitions of space (being a teleporter, and frequently using this ability to transport the Dreambound).

His teleportation can have very fine control. For example to fetch clothes and teleport them in to Insta-Change an ally as he teleports their previous clothes elsewhere. Or to Warp away shackles holding a comrade.

T.V.M. can also shoot powerful semi-liquid energy blasts from his hands, though he doesn’t actually do so very often.

Another offensive ability is a reality pulse that can scatter what it hits throughout all planes of reality. What it does is unclear, though, since it wasn’t seen actually connecting. Therefore, it’s not in the current stats block.

Advertisement

Rock that body

T.V.M.’s physical nature is also non-traditional4. His body frequently appears as disjointed parts. In particular, he doesn’t usually have a neck, and his head appears at a about a 75° angle from the usual vertical, floating above his shoulders. This seems to give him a certain resistance to damage

He occasionally uses this discombobulated physicality like the Stretching power, peeking around a corner far from his body by floating his head there, sending an ear into another room (via both Stretching and Warp) or sending his hand away to filch something.

His physiology also seems very resilient to drugs, but that may just be because he takes so many of those.

A kind of magic

T.V.M.’s consciousness seems to suffuse his body, which is apparently more akin to energy than to conventional organic matter. When he phases  through people he can intersect his consciousness and theirs.

So far he used this peculiarity to see something that Swashbuckler had seen by putting his head inside Swash’s head and looking inside his brain and optic nerves (in DC Heroes RPG terms, Mind Probe). He also once shared his mind with Morgaine Le Fey, resulting in a mental attack (Mind Blast) against the sorceress by suddenly exposing her to his opened doors of perception.

T.V.M. also has some less defined reality manipulation powers, which he uses much less often than the other Powers. In DC Heroes RPG terms these fall under the Sorcery umbrella. There are hints that they are indistinguishable from magic.

Such abilities have included stealing the Joker’s laugh from him and turning it into some sort of magic construct that could be ferried around and used as an artefact. Or rearranging the Tattooed Man’s tattoos so they mimic those of Sun-Chained-In-Ink and allow him to hold a sun within him.

The impact between T.V.M.’s Warp and the Tomorrow Woman’s psychic energies once resulted in some strange, but very localised, spatial disruptions. These bisected multiple vibrational reality planes through her, but not truly harming her.

T.V.M. is quite competent at using his powers. If only because he’s usually the only one who can understand what his powers do.

History

Michael Cannefick was born to a rich couple. He grew up in luxury and privilege. His life soon became filled with excess and indifference, though, as he felt insufferably lonely. He thought that his relationships with his parents and his numerous “friends” were completely artificial.

Cannefick’s quest for meaning started involving drugs when he was still a child. Within a few years, he was addicted to cocaine, barbiturates, amphetamines, LSD and others. His sanity was gravely damaged. He soon had to be interned as a psychiatric patient, complete with strait jacket.

Dreambound

T.V.M. was one of the four persons recruited by the “Dark Trinity” (Morgaine, Enigma and Despero) to act as minor agents. All four recruits were, in their way, expending their life in the pursuit of nigh-impossible dreams ; they were thus called the Dreambound.

The quartet was empowered by the Dark Trinity’s Cosmic Egg. They were promised that their dreams would be made true by the Dark Trinity as part of their reordering of the universe.

They were first detailed to stealing a variety of items symbolically tied to the real Trinity (Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman). Though they were successful, disaster nearly struck as one of their own, Sun-Chained-In-Ink, was forced to release the sun within him. The other three were arrested.

Change or die

As they were held in special facilities, the reality was rewritten. On this new version of Earth, they recruited the Tattooed Man III (Mark Richards) to become the new Sun-Chained-In-Ink. But though they escaped from prison, they were drafted anew by Morgaine, this time to assemble an army for her.

This army of super-villains, called the Dark Arcana, ended up conquering this recreated Earth against the global forces of the Justice Society International.

The three original Dreambounds (Primat, TVM and Swashbuckler) resented their conditions as slaves and grunts for Morgaine, though. And their drab existence was anything but the dream world they had been promised.

After confronting JSI spy the Atom, the trio allied with S.P.H.E.R.E.. It was a construct holding the consciousness of Enigma’s daughter, who resented the Dark Trinity’s reign just as they did.

There was also tension with Richards, who considered the other three to be weaklings and idiots.

Back to life, back to reality

As the godlike Trinity came to confront the Dark Trinity, the previous reality started re-asserting itself. And the original Sun-Chained-In-Ink emerged from Richards’s tattoos as he was restored.

Happy to be reunited with him, and seeing the empire of the Dark Trinity catastrophically crumble, the Dreambound fled. To their dismay they were forced to abandon S.P.H.E.R.E. as they ran.

Though they tried to hide, the Dreambound realised that they had to do something. They recruited Konvikt, a fallen member of a previous version of the Dark Trinity. The Dreambound and Konvikt attacked Despero and Morgaine at a critical moment, and Sun-Chained-In-Ink was later a key component of the spell that brought Krona down.

Though the Dreambound were eventually swept aside by Morgaine, and the Earth briefly destroyed, the situation was soon put right. The Dreambound then located the unconscious Sun-Chained-In-Ink in New Zealand, reanimating him and making sure that he was okay.

Though they were soon arrested, the various heroes present at the final battle testified that the Dreambound had valorously helped and only served Morgaine under duress. Thanks to these testimonies, the bizarre quartet was soon freed to find its way in the now-restored world.

The further adventures of the Dreambound have yet to be chronicled.

Description

See illustrations.

Personality

T.V.M. sounds like he’s perpetually high on a fairly pleasant LSD trip. At his best and most coherent he sounds like somebody thoroughly stoned on strong weed. Generally he sounds pretty happy, positive… and stuporous.

His semi-constant mumbling seems, to the inattentive, to be random and nonsensical. However, it’s actually entirely rational and pertinent. It’s just slightly garbled and somewhat non-linear, as if half the words were run through a spontaneous idea association filter.

Likewise, though he can occasionally get confused, he’s generally quite able to understand the situation and take initiatives.

Other traits

Like any stoner, T.V.M. has the munchies. A lot of his dialogue is about food – usually somewhat strange ones, as stoners do. He often offers to take his friends to some favourite restaurant to have his favourite munchies fares, such as fried clams or chocolate mikshakes.

Even when he starts zoning out (Psychological Instability), Primat can usually have him teleport the Dreambound out because she knows which places he associates with which foods. T.V.M. always remembers about the food.

He also seems pretty young (perhaps as young as 16) and sometimes decides to do things an even younger child would like, such as going to Disneyland.

Given his dreams of freedom from all constraints, T.V.M. doesn’t like to see imprisoned people (or, presumably, animals). He will likely destroy prisons he comes across to free the inmates.

Quotes

“CoLd so louDloud On my skin. and I tAste… FlutteRY butTerflIying EYelashes, taste Them opeNing…”

“OooO, ShaKe HAnds, newfriend, ShaKe…”

“FlY hiGh. Dream bIg. SAy BYE noW.”

(As Gangbuster throws a circular shield at the nearby Primat) “FrisbeE.”

Sun-Chained-In-Ink: “Do you ever cease your incessant prattle, Primat ?”
T.V.M.: “PriMat pRaTTle. PraTTle PriMat. PRATMAT priTtle.”

(Watching intensely as he makes parts of his hands appear and disappear) “OoOO, FINgers…”

Primat: “Pickled herring, T.V.M. ! Our new friends — the ones we showed you pictures of — want some of that good pickled herring !”
T.V.M.: “oOh… I know whERe to fINd thAT…” (teleports out with the Dreambound and their targets)

“HOMe now. CHeeRIos aNd sYruP.”

“BIG fUzzy has fuNKy eNeRGY SmEll. LikE sHrimp aNd gum aNd taBASCO tO Me.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: DC Universe.

Helper(s): Darci.

Writeup completed on the 11^th of June, 2010.